home resort help
 

Hello all,

My wife and I have decided that we would like to purchase directly from Disney. However, we are now having difficulty deciding our home resort. Our two options are Aulani and Animal Kingdom. Both will cost same amount, and yearly dues are roughly the same. The benefit of Aulani, is that for the same price, we get a contract that expires 4 years later than Animal Kingdom. However, we are not likely to go to Hawaii very often. I am hearing mixed reviews on whether the 7 month window would be enough to book at the Florida reorts, which we will go to more often.

Personally, I believe the extra years is a great benefit, but my wife is leaning towards the security of having the 11 month booking window in the place we are more likely to go. I understand this is a personal decision, but we could use help! What would you do? Opt for the longer contract, or go with Animal Kingdom since we can book their 11 months in advance?

Best,
Newbies.

You will get a lot of opinions from others about choosing to buy direct from Disney vs resales. As one who purchased direct for my own personal reasons, I won't attempt to sway you either way. Yes, Aulani has an extended expiration date, but how often will you actually use the 11 month window. If you tend to frequent WDW, I would go with a home resort there. I know they are offering some perks with the purchase of AKL and Aulani, however the other resorts are also available to first time buyers. There is a minimum of 160 points that must be purchased (I believe SSR is only 100 points), and you may have to be placed on a wait list. Not sure what your point need was, but there are options available for other extended contracts. Good luck with your purchase:cool1:

All you are guaranteed in your contract is to be able to stay at your home resort. If rules changed down the road, would you be happy with being restricted to Aulani or Animal Kingdom?

I believe Animal Kingdom expires in 2057 and Aulani is 2062. It's hard to say what you will be doing in 45-50 years. You may have decided to sell your deeded interest by then.

I would recommend that you buy at WDW, if you want to go there more often than Hawaii.

:welcome: to the dis!!
The best advice I received was buy where you want to stay. If you will primarily vacation at WDW then buy at one of those resorts.

good luck with your decision!

Sounds like your married to a smart cookie! If you only see yourself going to Aulani once in a blue moon, it makes no sense to own there. Additionally, DVC could decide to sell off Aulani if it is not meeting their fiscal needs, and then you would be out of DVC entirely. The 11 month booking window at WDW is very important during certain busy DVC times of the year -- Epcot F&W and Thanksgiving week through the first week of Jan are the most popular times for DVC members. Buying direct will probably get you 2012 and 2013 points, depending on which UY they are selling you. The extra perks that come with buying direct are never guaranteed and turn out to be a poor use of points, but that is info for another thread.

FYI -- Animal Kingdom is selling on the resale market for less than half what DVC is selling it for. My first AKV contract was purchased direct in 2008, but since then we have purchase 3 small AKV contract on the resale market and saved ourself thousands.:cool1: Spend some time reading these boards to truly understand what you are getting.:thumbsup2

I agree with buying where you want to stay (more often than not.)

I bought resale. If you are determined to buy direct, there are more options then just AKV or Aulani. You might have to push your guide to sell them to you though. Did you know you could get OKW points direct from Disney, for quite a bit less than AKV, and the expiration date would be 2057? Still not the kind of prices you can get via resale, but a better deal than you were given.

Don't think you are restricted to Animal Kindom villas or Aulani, just because that is where you guide would like to sell you.

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Thank you for your replies, ladies and gentlemen. We have previously decided to spend the extra money and buy direct, for peace of mind. However, I will look into this further on the boards.

I guess you all are right, and we should buy at WDW. Dangit, my wife always wins!

That is some VERY expensive peace of mind, IMO. The restrictions that are currently placed on resale points are not of great value again IMO. So I personally was willing to live with them rather than pay twice as much to buy from Disney.

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hmmmmm...

Well we just went on a cruise and loved it. We understand that the points are of much value when putting towards a future cruise, but we thought maybe that could change in the future (prices of cruise go up, but points stay the same).

Seems like I have more research to do on whether to buy direct or resale, but at least I am now able to answer which resort to buy in to.

Be well informed, then make the choice that gives you peace of mind. You can't lose when you know all your options then make the choice that's right for your family and situation.

But that isn't how it works. Every year DVC renegotiates with DCL, and the points for cruises go UP, sometimes by a lot. Cruises are already much more (point cost) than they were even 5 years ago. It is already at or near the point that you do better financially to rent your points out and use those funds to book your cruise with cash. Just more food for thought.

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Someone already mentioned this, but to drive home this point - unless you are in love with AKV, you can buy direct at any DVC resort. Just tell your guide which resort you prefer. You might have to wait for a while for the points, depending on resort and UY you want, but you can select from any DVC resort, not just AKV.

That 'points stay the same' thing only applies to DVC resorts. Not any of the exchange options, such as DCL, ABD, Disney Collection, etc. The points for cruising are already quite high, and they go up pretty much every year.

Another important thing to be aware of is that DCL can and does restrict the number of cabins available for points bookings. In the past, they've had periods of months where they don't take any bookings on points. I tried to book a cruise on points in September a couple of years ago, and was told there were no cabins available for points on any cruise until the following October. There was plenty of availability for cash reservations during the same time period.

Thank you all for your insight and help. I'm more confused now, but that just means I wasn't ready for a decision since I did not know all information necessary to make the correct decision.